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My team's around 35 after Lush Jungle. Sounds like the main problem most of you are facing is being underleveled, or not utilizing every edge the game gives you. Just WT a few times and you'll have 'mons that gain EV faster. Make friends with the Rotom Dex. I've been following my own advice and every Totem fight thus far has been a breeze. I even one-shot Lurantis, for Arceus' sake. Strategy isn't that important until the postgame, but thinking strategically is always a good habit to keep. (Unless I missed some sort of weird Nuzlocke memo and you're challenging yourselves on purpose.)

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It sounds like you've been pretty lucky. I don't see anything else I can do at this point, there is no further "edge" to utilize. My limit was 25 WTs and I only received route 1-2 nonsense, the best being inkay which I didn't have yet. Rotom has only given me friendship, catch rate and encounter powers so far.

On a side note I was finally able to beat totem araquanid with a lv 25-28 team. Flyinium Z peck did just about half but with -3 attack he couldn't heal it back so it was good. Trumbeak was killed in the turn by the bubble combo but had just enough left from other team members to take it out. What a nightmare.

Edited November 21, 2017 by Ashywolf

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Not entirely sure how you got a full team of six to 35 at that point without level grinding. I've gone out of my way to battle every trainer along the way and I'm still only 20-25 heading into that trial, which is roughly the same level as the NPC trainers in the area.

Edited November 21, 2017 by Lightstorm12000

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Not entirely sure how you got a full team of six to 35 at that point without level grinding. I've gone out of my way to battle every trainer along the way and I'm still only 20-25 heading into that trial, which is roughly the same level as the NPC trainers in the area.

With EXP bonus you could quite feasibly get to lv 35 actually, especially with the care/interaction mechanic too.

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I don't. I don't like normal turn-based RPGs. If pokemon becomes a slow grindfest with very hard to defeat bosses, I'm out. Remember that all these pokemon have to be real things the player can also use at some point. I think, looking at the abominations that are UBs, and some of the other absurdly strong pokemon (mega Rayquaza), they've kind of forgotten this.

Gen 7 might have actually been good if they focused on alola forms and gave those to more than just Kanto pokemon, but no.. and I'm disappointed that I pretty much had to buy USUM, or quit, cause I can't play with other players if I stick to SM.

The graphics are great for the overworld and trainers, which were the biggest eyesore to me in gen 6. The pokemon could still use work- they're the same models as in Pokemon Go, which really goes to show what a lighting engine could do, and that USUM should have used one. I can't take the cheap anime look seriously because close up it looks very.. bad. Very pixelated in a game that isn't even pixels anymore.

I know most of you seem to only have a positive outlook on the game, but I'm waiting for gen 8.. but I feel the damage has already been done- I don't see how they can recover when the Ultra Beasts are part of the dex, when they really should be retconned out of the series. They can retcon out the overly strong megas they've made, since those are just items, but whole pokemon..? And I think there's a problem when 20% or so of Alola's dex is them and the Tapus. The Tapus are fine, but there were too many legendaries in gen 7, and they were all better than the normal pokemon, as if they didn't matter. I don't need a big dex, I just need a quality dex of normal pokemon. Normal pokemon that I can breed, and own as many of as I want, and that aren't shiny locked until the second version, or permanently.. because this is becoming ridiculous.

Overall, gen 7 tried to do way too much;

-trials, some are fun, some are half-baked. They literally ran out of time to give art-girl a trial in SM. USUM really feels like what SM was supposed to be if they weren't rushing to get a game out every single year.

-alola forms, could have been something good, but very obviously pandering to gen 1 fans by only being kanto mons.

-z moves, a replacement for megastones that every pokemon can use. Sounds more fair until you realize only certain pokemon get special ones only for them. And megastones were dropped so immediately for them, a large percentage were only available via online events.

-ultra beasts, hideous and do not look like pokemon at all- why do the humans from ultra space look normal is the pokemon are such ungodly beings, and why can we catch them? Why did we need aliens?? Not to mention, we get three more in USUM, instead of them giving more time to alola forms like they should have.

-sos battles, these are honestly fine, but I'm a bit annoyed you can't get adrenaline orbs until halfway through the game, when USUM changed it so you need them to chain more than one pokemon.

-festival plazza, this is a needlessly restrictive feature. Compare gen 6 where you could go online anywhere in the game, and still play the game. Instead now you have to sit in the plaza and wait for whoever you're trading or battling with to show up, and it also means I'm less likely to ever be online.

-no more HMs/Ride pokemon, I also don't mind this so much. I can't say anything that negative other than I don't like Machamp and the trainer looks dumb in the riding gear.

-story emphasis, oh story emphasis. Maybe if it wasn't constantly getting in my way of exploring I'd forgive it, but... ugh.Can't take two steps without one of your friends popping up to say something, or tell you can't go somewhere yet for *insert arbitrary reason here*. And this isn't an RPG thing. Most RPGs will actually let you go somewhere and find out you don't have what you need to continue, or that you just aren't strong enough, rather than force you to go on the rail the game wants you to. Why can't I do the trials on Akala in any order? It literally wouldn't affect a thing, but no.. and the literal plot barriers are the worst.

-poke pelago, this is nice. I prefer sos training for EVs, but it has its uses fro berries and evolution stones, and is useful and inoffensive.

Can we count, that's 8 new features, and a heavy story emphasis, and if I must be frank, the developers did not do a good job putting it all together. I can forgive some of it, but they really need to scale it back to focus on only two or three things if they want to succeed.. and not fix things that aren't broken (pss, you will be missed). Never mind the other things they added in USUM alone. Pick something, develop it, and stick with it. I'm getting tired of 'Gimmick, the series.'

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I actually agree with quite a few of the points above. I still am not too keen on the UBs. The trials were ok but not Pokemon. Alolan forms were a nice idea but really not developed to its full potential. They didn't even have Alolan cubone for god sake. I really, really wish there were new pokemon or Alolan forms in USUM instead of these new UBs. Poipole is ok but the other two are mediocre.

I'm ok with the story changes over the generations, honestly.

edit: hahaha I can't grind because I can't see anything. Really. The game went pitch black and I can't make out the routes or the grass. This is going to be fun.

Edited November 28, 2017 by Ashywolf

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That's basically how I feel. If they scaled back the UBs, they could have focused more on the alola forms and perhaps developed them more. I don't hate hate the idea of ultra space, or sogaleo/lunala and necrozma, but the UBs were too much and didn't contribute to anything besides post game.

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1. trials, some are fun, some are half-baked. They literally ran out of time to give art-girl a trial in SM. USUM really feels like what SM was supposed to be if they weren't rushing to get a game out every single year.

2. alola forms, could have been something good, but very obviously pandering to gen 1 fans by only being kanto mons.

3. z moves, a replacement for megastones that every pokemon can use. Sounds more fair until you realize only certain pokemon get special ones only for them. And megastones were dropped so immediately for them, a large percentage were only available via online events.

4. sos battles, these are honestly fine, but I'm a bit annoyed you can't get adrenaline orbs until halfway through the game, when USUM changed it so you need them to chain more than one pokemon.

5. festival plazza, this is a needlessly restrictive feature. Compare gen 6 where you could go online anywhere in the game, and still play the game. Instead now you have to sit in the plaza and wait for whoever you're trading or battling with to show up, and it also means I'm less likely to ever be online.

6. no more HMs/Ride pokemon, I also don't mind this so much. I can't say anything that negative other than I don't like Machamp and the trainer looks dumb in the riding gear.

Id like to add some to your post.

1. True, it feels like USUM is a $40 dlc. Don't get me wrong, SM was great but compare to USUM it feels waaay more good and pale in comparison.

2. Yep. Some of them were not even viable for competitive.

3. For me I personally like megastones better than z moves. They kind of remind me of those gems back in gen V.

4. I dislike SOS battles. Yes you get 36 max ev but how long to fully max a stat? TWENTY MINUTES, because sometimes the call for ally even fails. Well in hordes theyre pretty much 100% call.

5. Let me get this straight: Festival Plaza was a MISTAKE. We can't even organize the pokemon in our pc when it comes to trading so we have to go online and offline if we forgot something.

6. I find them good and bad at the same time. Bad because they take up too much space and there are certain areas on wher eyou cant ride the tauros unlike bicycles. The machamp was pretty much late in the game.

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Haha the Necrozma fight. I'll be grinding to lv 70 for the next attempt.

I love that's it basically an actual RPG boss though. Not much in the series has really compared besides general legendary fights.

You don't really need to grind. A good Dark or Ghost type can knock off a huge chunk of it's HP with the Dark/Ghost-type Z-move. That being said, he is way OP. He two-shot my lvl 59 Tyranitar with Smart Strike. Thankfully he didn't have a Grass move so my Swampert was able to clean him up.

As for the points against it, I agree on a lot of those points. Gen 7 is the most gimmicky generation yet.

1. The trials themselves are always a joke. They're so easy that it's clearly intended for the kids. The totem battles though, they're actually pretty tough if you're not properly prepared for them. The Totems and their allies can decimate your team if you don't have the right type of Pokemon or aren't over-leveled for the area.

2. I agree on the Alolan Forms. It was a great idea, but could've been fleshed out way more. I was one of those hoping that they'd add in new ones from other generations with USUM.

3. Yeah. Z-moves are really just "Mega-Evolution Lite". I hate how they're trying to downplay Mega Evolution as something bad when it was seen as the ultimate way to express your bond with your Pokemon in Gen 6. I wouldn't be surprised if Gen 8 says that Z-moves are actually using Infinite Energy, draining the Pokemon's life force and shortening their lives, or something to that effect. I mean, stick with the game mechanics that your fans love, Game Freak.

4. I'm pretty sure that the whole point of the Ultra Beasts was to make them look like they weren't from the same world as the rest of the Pokemon. But, yeah, they probably shouldn't have added quite so many in one generation.

5. SoS battles are one thing that I haven't been able to perfect yet, though I do still intend to try for shinies with it at some point. (I -really- want a shiny Trapinch/Flygon. T_T ) They can be a major pain when you're trying to find one of the rare Pokemon that only appear through this method, especially if you're required to have a specific weather effect up at the time. Getting Castform was a nightmare in my Moon version, and it looks like it's going to be even harder in USUM. I'm thinking of just trading for one.

6. Festival Plaza was a total fail on Game Freak's part. I feel like it should've been completely separate from the normal online features. It should've been some side thing that we could completely ignore if we didn't like it. It could still show everyone on your Friends List, but it should not be the one and only way through which we can connect to them.

7. Honestly, I like the Ride Pokemon. Good riddance to HMs. No more do I need to keep going back to the PC for an HM slave, or get stuck having Cut or Rock Smash on one of my main team members until late in the game. As for how Ride Pokemon look, this is only the generation where they introduced it. I'm sure that they'll improve on it even more as the series continues on. (Provided they don't switch back to HMs for some unfathomable reason.)

8. Yeah. The story emphasis is a little excessive. Like you said, a good story is great, but it shouldn't be completely story driven. Let us do some exploring while we're completing the story.

9. And I love Poke Pelago too. It's a great way to interact with the Pokemon that you keep in your PC box, and a great way to access evolution items that are usually in pretty short supply. (Well, non-man-made ones anyway.)

All in all, I can certainly see where you're coming from. Gen 7 was by no means perfect, it had plenty of features that were either unnecessary or weren't fleshed out or though out nearly enough. But, over all, I liked it. Let's just hope that Gen 8 fixes all the problems that Gen 7 pushed forward.

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4. I dislike SOS battles. Yes you get 36 max ev but how long to fully max a stat? TWENTY MINUTES, because sometimes the call for ally even fails. Well in hordes theyre pretty much 100% call.

That's a fair point. Some pokemon are more likely to call than others. I usually stick with wingull, yungoos, slowpoke, tentacool, psyduck, and exeggcute for EV training cause they're both common, and call regularly enough with the adrenaline orb.

34 minutes ago, Lightstorm12000 said:

5. SoS battles are one thing that I haven't been able to perfect yet, though I do still intend to try for shinies with it at some point. (I -really- want a shiny Trapinch/Flygon. T_T ) They can be a major pain when you're trying to find one of the rare Pokemon that only appear through this method, especially if you're required to have a specific weather effect up at the time. Getting Castform was a nightmare in my Moon version, and it looks like it's going to be even harder in USUM. I'm thinking of just trading for one.

Yeah.. as a method for catching pokemon that only appear that way, it's a little less ideal. I've only done two shiny hunts via SOS. After that went back to breeding. Some of the pokemon that are very unlikely to call would not be a fun hunt, since shiny odds max out at a chain of 70.

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You don't really need to grind. A good Dark or Ghost type can knock off a huge chunk of it's HP with the Dark/Ghost-type Z-move. That being said, he is way OP. He two-shot my lvl 59 Tyranitar with Smart Strike. Thankfully he didn't have a Grass move so my Swampert was able to clean him up.

Anything on my team could knock off a chunk of HP if it survived. He one shot everything at lv 60-62 even Primarina.

With a lv 65-68 team I was able to get past it. Primarina survived in red so I was able to keep using max potion until he ran out of photon geyser. I was able to get one moonblast out which lowered his sp. atk and then I was able to take the hits. Someone quite rightly pointed out that if my team had 5 hearts, they would survive with 1 hp left after strong attacks. Too late now.

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I actually didn't find Necrozma too bad. I had my Lanturn throw a Thunder Wave on it, then when she went down I had my Noivern soften it up with Draco Meteor, and finally brought in Mimikyu for the kill with Let's Snuggle Forever. Around level 64-65.